At a time when government finances are already overdrawn, lets take the US industry with the fastest growing costs, where there is the least understanding or consensus how to control costs, and where the emotional price for cutting costs is the highest and lets nationalize it.
Remember that when you think about the current fiscal debate and mess because the horrible current deficits that Congress is trying to address are pre-Obamacare. It is only going to get a lot worse.
Given the prevalent use of social media among professionals, small businesses, huge corporations, and everyone in between, it still surprises me that five social media crimes are continually being committed.
The funny part is that all of these crimes totally ignore the fact that social networking is social. Communicating on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter is no different than talking to someone in person, on the phone, via text, or through email; it’s just a new platform for doing so.
OK, time to get up on my soapbox. In no particular order, here are the five social media crimes you need to avoid commiting:
1. Sending LinkedIn invitations without personalizing the message
“I would like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” Great, but why? And also, please remind me where we’ve met if we’re not super good buddies. Throw in something you remember me mentioning for extra brownie points. But basically, don’t be so lazy you can’t take 30 seconds to compose a short note to me. It smacks of sloppiness.
2. Sending LinkedIn inv
Establishing credit in your own name is important and entities from mortgage and auto lenders to utilities companies and employers will use your credit history to weigh their decisions. For this reason, it’s important to have at least one credit account in your name to begin building a credit history.
You may already have credit in your name if you’ve opened a credit card account or taken out a loan in the past seven years. If this is the case, pull a copy of your credit report to examine where your accounts stand. However, if you have no lines of credit in your file, consider opening a secured credit card. You may qualify for a traditional credit card, but without a lengthy credit history, you may be required to pay higher interest rates. Secured cards, in contrast, are geared more toward first-time borrowers.
Whether you opt for a traditional or secured credit card, make sure you manage your account responsibly. Avoid carrying a high balance and only charge amounts you can pay off in full at the end of each billing cycle. Mos
My column in Forbes is up. Here is how it starts. Hit the link to see it all.
We Americans are all being held hostage. The ransom demand: Trillions of dollars in new taxes. The threat: the shut down of any number of economic activities, from retirement payments to mortgage lending.
Megan McArdle, blogging at the Atlantic Monthly, posted a hypothetical list of what government activities would have to cease if we bumped up against the debt ceiling and 40% of government activity (ie the amount currently funded by deficit spending) had to cease immediately. Here are two examples from her article:
The market for guaranteed student loans plunges into chaos. Hope your kid wasn’t going to college this year!
The mortgage market evaporates. Hope you didn’t need to buy or sell a house!
Terrorists have tried for years to find some way to threaten the whole of America and have, with the exception of 9/11, never really succeeded. Who knew that all they really needed was not to buy guns and bombs, but to get elected to Congress. How did we
Earlier today:
This is a day to remember – Greece will now default – so this is probably worth one more post (I haven’t seen a rating agency downgrade them yet). For details: STATEMENT BY THE HEADS OF STATE OR GOVERNMENT OF THE EURO AREA
AND EU INSTITUTIONS.
Note: The history of the European bailouts is deny first, then act later. So naturally the following denial of additional defaults just raises the question of “when” for many observers:
“As far as our general approach to private sector involvement in the euro area is concerned, we would like to make it clear that Greece requires an exceptional and unique solution.
…
All other euro countries solemnly reaffirm their inflexible determination to honour fully their own individual sovereign signature and all their commitments to sustainable fiscal conditions and structural reforms.”
And here is a look at European bond spreads from the Atlanta Fed weekly Financial Highlights released today (graph as of July 20th).
America failed to collapse into ruinous anarchy this week when its president late Tuesday endorsed a deficit-reduction plan proposed by the Senate. Policy makers, it’s beginning to seem, are a few weeks of mannerly negotiation away from a $4 trillion improvement in public finances and reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code.
For gold investors, it was a minor setback. Their glimmering prize has jumped six-fold in price in a decade and on Tuesday fetched $1,601 per ounce. On Wednesday, it lost as much as $20 before recovering. More trouble could be afoot. Sources close to the matter say rivers have yet to run red with blood (although the Hudson could do with lower PCB levels).
Gold, absent neurotic fear, is a lousy investment. In 2001, when America last ran a surplus, the stuff sold for barely $300 an ounce adjusted for inflation, following a two-decade decline. Since then, terrorist attacks, wars, the popping of stock and real estate bubbles, squander and squabbling have propelled it ever higher.
